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The new promotional piece from Intel spells it out pretty clearly. After some fairly proficient postulating, it turns out that Apple fans who predicted Cupertino embracing Intel's latest processors into its MacBook offerings may be proven correct. Despite some rumblings about when it may happen, we now have some evidence to suggest that it will, indeed, happen. Earlier today, CNET served up coverage of the news.

The world learned of the apparent development as the result of an e-mail promotion that hit the email inbox of people engaged in the Intel Retail Edge Program (IREP), which is "a training program for Intel sales representatives." The inference, of course, is that Apple is on board to adopt the hottest processors on the market.

According to the text from the promotional material: "January Prize Draw: Win a MacBook Pro. Pass this month's trainings for 2 chances to win one of 2 MacBook Pro laptops with the accelerated response of an Intel Core i5 processor."

It looks like Intel has, in fact, leaked the forthcoming availability of Core i5-powered MacBook Pros, which may appear at a rumored Apple media event believed to be scheduled for January 27 at Yerba Buena Arts Center. At any rate, it appears that the "when" question has been answered, which is to say, "soon."

By all accounts, this information comes to us via a leak... and a pretty significant one. For now, Intel isn't about to confirm whether their big reveal was intentional or otherwise. According to CNET, Intel won't issue a formal comment, yet they did acknowledge an "error on IREP" that is currently undergoing investigation.

It could have been a mistake in the language in the e-mail, or--and this seems more likely--the mistake could have been that it was sent out too early. MacBook Pros with Arrandale architecture, which includes the Core i5 processor, have been anticipated for some time, as my colleague Brooke Crothers wrote on Monday. Check out his post for more about what to expect if Apple does indeed add Intel's latest silicon to its notebook lineup.

There's no shortage of MacBook Pro users who would thoroughly dig this development, if it does, in fact, prove to be legit. Although there's talk of an "error," it's much more likely that Intel just accidentally revealed too much information too soon.